


want you more than a melody

by astrodrag



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Coffee Shop Meetcute, F/F, and dumbassery ensues, except they accidentally swap phones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:16:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23101570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrodrag/pseuds/astrodrag
Summary: She heard her name called out, and as she stepped up to the counter to get her drink, she felt herself collide with someone, quickly followed by a splash of iced coffee hitting her jacket. Her phone fell from her hand, landing with the kind of thud that made her heart skip a beat out of fear. Glancing up, Vanessa could see a tall blonde looking down at her, mouth wide in shock.“I - fuck, I’m sorry,” the blonde sputtered, exhaling deeply. “I’m so sorry. Here, let me - hold on a second.”Under other circumstances, Vanessa would have been livid. Her favorite jacket was covered in coffee and the screen on her phone was more than likely cracked, both of which would put a huge damper on the rest of her day. But she couldn’t be mad at the blonde.
Relationships: Brooke Lynn Hytes/Vanessa Vanjie Mateo
Comments: 16
Kudos: 22





	want you more than a melody

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BarbieHytes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarbieHytes/gifts).



> Wrote this for B's birthday over a month ago, and of course I'm only now getting around to posting this. Oops?  
> Title taken from Sunflower, Vol. 6 by Harry Styles

The sound of horns in the distance as the rain pounded against the window of the coffee shop made Vanessa’s brain feel fuzzy, the early morning bustle of the city around her not working its usual magic on her. She felt out of it, like she was floating through her routine, not really focusing on anything in particular. Even her phone couldn’t hold her attention, an unusual phenomenon even for her. Maybe it was because it was a dreary Tuesday, or maybe it was because she hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before. Whatever it was, the day felt like it wasn’t going to be much more than a blip on the timeline of her life.

Or so she thought. 

She heard her name called out, and as she stepped up to the counter to get her drink, she felt herself collide with someone, quickly followed by a splash of iced coffee hitting her jacket. Her phone fell from her hand, landing with the kind of  _ thud  _ that made her heart skip a beat out of fear. Glancing up, Vanessa could see a tall blonde looking down at her, mouth wide in shock.

“I -  _ fuck,  _ I’m sorry,” the blonde sputtered, exhaling deeply. “I’m so sorry. Here, let me - hold on a second.” 

Under other circumstances, Vanessa would have been livid. Her favorite jacket was covered in coffee and the screen on her phone was more than likely cracked, both of which would put a huge damper on the rest of her day. But she couldn’t be mad at the blonde, not with the way she was looking at Vanessa, bright green eyes full of fear. The look in her eyes made her heart sink a little bit, Vanessa almost feeling bad for the woman. She shouldn’t be so scared, shouldn’t feel so bad about the accident - if anything, the collision was most likely Vanessa’s fault, since she hadn’t been paying attention to where she was going.

Before she could say as much, the blonde turned and hurried away from the scene of the accident. Vanessa watched as the blonde frantically weaved through the small crowd of people waiting on their drinks, coming back mere seconds later with the napkin dispenser. Her near-empty cup had been left on the counter in place of the dispenser, forgotten as she handed Vanessa a couple handfuls of napkins.

“Shit, I really am so sorry,” the blonde muttered, her eyes scanning Vanessa’s face, most likely for some sign of anger from her. But Vanessa just let out a laugh, shaking her head as she used the napkins the blonde had handed her to dab at the coffee splotch on her jacket.

“Don’t worry about it,” Vanessa replied with a shrug, something fluttering in her chest as the blonde flashed her a small, sheepish smile. Within an instant, the blonde’s entire demeanor had visibly shifted; she seemed more relaxed now, allowing herself to let her guard down just enough to look comfortable around Vanessa. 

For a second, Vanessa thought the blonde was going to just leave. She turned away again and Vanessa felt her heart sink, the flutter gone just as suddenly as it had begun. But then the woman moved to pick up Vanessa’s phone, along with her own fallen phone, and it was Vanessa’s turn to relax. 

She wasn’t exactly sure why she wanted this other woman to stick around so badly. It was probably because she was drop dead gorgeous and Vanessa wanted a chance to make a good impression on her, one that wasn’t drowned in spilled coffee, even though she knew her chances with this woman were likely pretty slim. But ‘pretty slim’ wasn’t going to stop her from trying.

“Sooooo,” Vanessa hummed, breaking through whatever awkward silence had begun to fall between them. “You gonna tell me your name, or just stand there all tense and shit?” The woman let out a laugh at the words, much to Vanessa’s relief.

“Brooke Lynn Hytes,” the woman replied, her smile brightening as her eyes looked Vanessa over. “But you can call me Brooke. And you are?”  _ Brooke _ . Vanessa would remember that name, already repeating it inside her mind to commit it to memory.

“Vanessa Mateo. Friends all call me Vanjie, but you can call me whatever you like.” Her words earned her another laugh from Brooke, causing her to flash the woman a proud grin.

“Well, Vanessa, I -” Brooke’s words were cut off by a barista calling out her name, having been kind enough to remake her drink after it spilled all over the floor. Brooke’s smile faded, replaced by a neutral expression as she stood up a little straighter. “I should go, sorry again about the coffee.”

And with that, Vanessa watched as the blonde carefully went to retrieve her new cup of iced coffee, then exited out the side of the cafe. Forgetting all about her own coffee, Vanessa let out a sigh and headed out the front door. She pulled her jacket closed around herself tightly, doing her best to hide the stain as she braced the chilly air and made her way toward the office. 

* * *

It was only a matter of two hours before Vanessa’s phone was blowing up with texts, the vibration from incoming messages causing it to bounce across her desk.

Weird. She didn’t remember leaving her phone on vibrate.

It wasn’t until she picked up her phone to see who was texting her that the realization hit her.  _ This wasn’t her phone _ .

Staring up at her from the lockscreen was an image of Brooke with her arms wrapped tightly around a redheaded woman, who was pressing a kiss against Brooke’s cheek. She wasn’t quite sure why, but she felt her stomach sink at the image, staring at the image for a few seconds longer than she should have. But then the phone was  _ ringing _ , and everyone around Vanessa turned to look at her as she nearly dropped the phone, the sudden noise startling her. She cursed under her breath and quickly rose to her feet, making a beeline for the break room as she answered the incoming call. Even though the number hadn’t been saved to the phone, she had a feeling she knew who the call was from.

“Hello?” Vanessa said hesitantly, taking a seat at the table in the break room.

_ “How fucking dare you!” _ Brooke’s voice was recognizable even when she was practically yelling at Vanessa, the anger in her voice a stark contrast to the concerned Brooke she met that morning. Vanessa had to pull the phone away from her ear slightly, the boom of Brooke’s voice too loud through the small speaker on her phone.

“Uhhh, how dare I what?” Though it probably wasn’t the smartest thing Vanessa could have said in that moment, it was the only thing that came to mind, her brain riddled with confusion.

“Don’t play dumb. You  _ stole  _ my phone! And you didn’t even do a good job, because you left your own phone behind, and now I have it. So if you want your phone back, I suggest -” Vanessa couldn’t help but laugh, which immediately caused Brooke to stop talking. That didn’t calm Brooke’s frustration though, as Vanessa could sense her seething anger through the call. “What the hell is so funny?”

“The fact that you actually think I  _ stole _ your phone, when you was the one who handed it to me after picking it up off the damn floor.” There was a momentary pause, the line falling so silent that Vanessa wondered for a second if Brooke had hung up on her. She almost checked to make sure the call was still connected, but resisted the urge to do so. Vanessa imagined Brooke was trying to wrap her head around the situation, reaching for straws to come up with some other scenario in which Vanessa was to blame in all of this. “Beside, if I stole your phone, you really think I’d be answering your damn call right now?”

“Probably not.”

“Exactly.” Vanessa let out a sigh, leaning back in her seat as she kicked her feet up onto the chair beside her. “I think they just got mixed up, no biggie. I ain’t off work ‘till 6 though, and I ain’t gonna be able to go nowhere for my lunch break. So either you come to me, or we swap back after we both off. Also - how the  _ hell  _ did you unlock my phone to call me?”

“Your passcode was  _ 1234 _ , it wasn’t hard to figure out.”  _ Shit,  _ Vanessa thought to herself. Maybe  _ that  _ was how Silky kept hacking into her tinder account to edit her bio.

She was going to have to change her passcode once this was all over.

Once all of that was out of the way, the call only lasted another five minutes, long enough for Vanessa to chip away at any of Brooke’s remaining anger until she agreed to meet Vanessa at the coffee shop from that morning. When the call was over, Vanessa headed back to her desk, expecting it to be business as usual for the rest of the day.

That just wasn’t the case for Vanessa.

Brooke’s phone seemed to vibrate with a new text every five minutes, the soft  _ buzz  _ very quickly starting to drive Vanessa insane. She did her best not to look at the texts, but she couldn’t help it. What if one of them was from Brooke, saying she had changed her mind and needed her phone back sooner? None of the texts were from Brooke, but that didn’t stop Vanessa from checking every time a new text came through.

* * *

Vanessa chose to leave Brooke’s phone at her desk when she went into her weekly update meeting with her coworkers and boss, having been unable to figure out how to make the phone stop vibrating without being able to unlock it. She  _ really  _ wished she had gotten Brooke’s passcode from her, but in some way it had seemed wrong to ask, even though Brooke had easily figured out Vanessa’s. Regardless, it was too late to ask, and didn’t seem like a pressing matter at the moment. 

At least, it wasn’t until Vanessa got back to her desk.

Almost from the moment she sat back down, Brooke’s phone started blowing up again.

_ Buzz. _

**neens: girls night friday???**

_ Buzz. _

**neens: you can’t miss this one, kam’s still pissed you missed the last one**

_ Buzz. Buzz. _

**kam: bitch you BETTER come to girls night**

**life in plastique: brookie pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease come!!**

Group chat messages.  _ Great _ .

Vanessa set the phone under a stack of papers, hoping it would dull the constant noises coming from Brooke’s phone at least a little bit. Aside from her own growing frustration level, she could tell that those around her were even more irritated by the noises, could feel the glares of her coworkers each time the phone received a new message.

This had to stop. 

When hiding the phone under papers didn’t work, Vanessa wrapped it up in her jacket and threw it into her purse, concern over missing potential messages from Brooke be damned. She needed silence, and she needed it  _ now.  _


End file.
